


Forgiveness

by UchihaItachi



Series: ShisuItaWeek 2019 [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant Technically, Edo Tensei, M/M, ShisuIta Week 2019, this is 21 year old itachi and shisui died at 16 so take that as you will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 05:48:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21031256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UchihaItachi/pseuds/UchihaItachi
Summary: ShisuItaWeek 2019 Day 1 - Reanimation“I doubt you can do much against this.”The coffin opens and Itachi's heart stops because standing there is the body of Uchiha Shisui. The body that he could have sworn he would never see again. Uchiha's burn their bodies after death partly due to protecting their kekkai genkai and partly due to tradition. He'd seen Shisui's body burn even if he wasn't welcome at that funeral.





	Forgiveness

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe the prompts were time travel and reanimation and I who is a slut for time travel wrote reanimation but really Itachi needed this

“We can't have you messing with our affairs...” says a shinobi that Itachi really couldn't care less about. “You think you are almighty, but we know better than that.”

Itachi has never thought he was almighty. He barely thinks he's good. He's not even really a person anymore, just grief and desperation trying his best to play his role until he hands his baton to the next person. The same way that Shisui had handed the baton to him when he was at the end of his rope unable to do anymore for him or their family. It was unfair...just as he is doing to Sasuke.

His eyes shift to the Mangekyo, ready to cast Tsukuyomi to knock the man out to capture him for this bounty that Kakuzu had sent him out on.

Instead, with a poof there's a wooden coffin, and the shinobi performs the hand signs for the edo tensei. What relic would this man throw at him? Itachi had stopped caring about anyone in his family save a few a long time ago when they were poisoned and set off to self destruction. Besides, Itachi is a monster. That is the role he chose, he can easily continue to do so.

“I doubt you can do much against this.”

The coffin opens and Itachi's heart stops because standing there is the body of Uchiha Shisui. The body that he could have sworn he would never see again. Uchiha's burn their bodies after death partly due to protecting their kekkai genkai and partly due to tradition. He'd seen Shisui's body burn even if he wasn't welcome at that funeral.

This isn't a genjutsu. Itachi tries to dispel it, but it isn't. His skin feels suffocating on his body as if every single sin he'd ever done is suddenly fused to him crushing him into nothing.

Shisui's eyes opens and there is that dull look of mind control. But really, wasn't Shisui being controlled before anyway? By the village's lack of help and his family's lack of foresight. By his own inability to do anything. By Shisui's inability to realize that having feelings for him was pointless and led to his doom.

Suddenly, he's small again and Shisui is standing over the Nakano, blood dripping down his empty eye sockets. Shisui's face has that look of apology before he falls into the water and with it takes every single coping mechanism and shred of hope Itachi has ever had.

“...There's no body. How are you...?” Itachi mumbles as the man laughs giving a hand sign before Shisui flickers forward to life. Itachi should care about the man, about his mission. Shisui had only been better than him for a few years they trained together before Itachi quickly outmatched him. Even as a reanimated corpse with no limits to his stamina, Itachi still could easily dismantle Shisui, especially when Shisui's eyes seemed to not have the ability to use the Sharingan.

Beating Shisui would mean...destroying him. Could he do that? Could he do that again? When he'd already done that once by being a terrible shinobi and a terrible person unable to make any kind of difference in their lives? Could he really ever hurt Shisui? Even a part of him had wanted to desperately yell into the after life that Shisui was a bastard for abandoning him. Even if a part of him had wanted to throw himself over the Nakano too, but the only thing that stopped him was his little brother and protecting his life.

He could use Shisui's eye and his own technique to break the hold the technique had on him. It wouldn't be hard honestly, and Shisui's technique would recharge before he had to use it again. But did he dare? To do so would mean having to speak to him again. What would Shisui know? Would he have seen him slaughter everyone? Would he have seen him hurt Sasuke to solidify he was a monster? Would he look at Itachi with the slash across his forehead and tell him what a disgrace he was to spit in the face of everything they've done even if every night when Itachi went to sleep he tried to tell himself it would be okay in the end?

Or would Shisui look at the way Itachi hadn't been taking care of himself and even though Itachi was a monster, tell him he needed to care about himself?

Itachi can't do this forever however. He can feel his lungs start to burn ever so slightly. His condition has started to accelerate badly, and he had honestly expected this mission to be easy. The man's bounty wasn't even that large.

So...he summons the crow, who casts kotoamatsukami, and Itachi holds his breath as Shisui blinks a few times before staring at him with that same confused look he'd seen on him once or twice in the middle of the night.

“....Itachi...is...is that you...?” Itachi feels sick. His stomach twists on itself and he regrets not just letting the mind controlled Shisui stab his kunai straight through his stomach because he rather experience that for 72 hours than whatever is about to unfold. He thanks years of trauma and his ability to dissociate for keeping his face as neutral as possible. “...Itachi...what's...you...” Itachi can feel Shisui try to break a genjutsu.

“It's real.” Itachi says softly, and he can see the way Shisui blinks, eye widening. “...Shisui. A...a lot has happened since you died...”

“...Itachi...” Itachi can't see Shisui through his own tears. Or maybe it's the fact that he's deactivated his Sharingan because looking at Shisui is too much. This is all too much. There's a level of panic under his skin, thrumming with an intensity he hasn't truly felt in years or at least hasn't felted besides the few moments after his nightmares where he wonders why he's allowed to continue to exist.

“Itachi...” Shisui says again too softly. Itachi knows that tone of voice. He can hear him take a step closer, and Itachi can feel himself shake ever so slightly. He wants to take a step back but his body won't cooperate. It feels like he's a small child in a body far too big. In a world far too big.

“Oh...Itachi....” Suddenly Shisui's hands are on his cheeks, thumbs brushing the skin ever so slightly. It feels so wrong because he's ice cold when Shisui has only ever been hot as the sun. Full of life and energy and one of the few things in this world who's existence made him feel alive. How ironic that his touch and his voice makes Itachi feel like he's rotting even faster from the inside out.

“I'm so sorry.” Shisui croaks out and Itachi can see just barely because he's in his range of sight that Shisui's face is scrunched up in that way it always does when he cried. There's no tears because this body can't cry, and it makes the whole situation feel even worse. To know this is nothing but a shadow of Shisui in body even if it really is Shisui. Itachi knows that man's chakra signature and the way it twists and moves with ever emotion and thought even if Shisui has tried his whole life to make himself seem far more aloof than he ever was. “Itachi I'm so sorry. I was so selfish...”

“What.” Itachi manages to say finally processing all the words that Shisui is saying. “What. You're....sorry?” Itachi's voice raises in a way it hasn't since he was a child. “For what? What have you done Shisui? You are not the one who slaughtered our family. The same family you tried to protect. You are not the one who traumatized Sasuke and continues to hurt him to guarantee he will redeem our family and finally end my miserable existence.”

“Itachi...you...” Shisui stares through him for moment processing his words, and Itachi has to close his eyes because he can't stand to see what is going to be hatred and disappointment. It's already too much to see that on Sasuke's face. It's already too much.

Shisui's arms wrap him, and Shisui's chin rest on his head. It takes a moment for Shisui to stand on his tippy-toes, and push Itachi's head in the spot. The height different isn't quite what it used to be. It feels surreal and undeserved to be in Shisui's arms even if it's what he's wanted for years.

“I'm so sorry I put this burden on you. I'm so sorry that you've had to do such horrible things. It must have hurt so much. It must hurt so much.” Shisui mumbles and Itachi fists his hands in the back of Shisui's shirt like he's 12 again.

“You have not-” Itachi starts but Shisui interrupts him.

“I shouldn't have put in all in your hands. You are so capable, but you were only 12. That's....that's not right of me. Know this Itachi. My feelings for you haven't changed. No matter what you do. No matter what you've done. Itachi...” Shisui pulls back and there's that warmth in his eyes that Itachi has craved and needed.

“I am proud of you. I love you.” Shisui laces his fingers with Itachi's and then takes his other hand and places it over Itachi's heart. “I am with you by your side always and forever.”

Shisui leans in and kisses him softly, and Itachi can't help but lean in even if he still doesn't think he deserves it.

“Now. Let's kill that bastard who thinks messing with the dead is funny. I mean I guess I should thank him because wow Itachi, Puberty really did you justice.” Itachi frowns very softly and shoves him, but he would have it no other way.

This time when he says goodbye...there's a weight that's off his shoulders.

His decisions may not have been the best, but...this is what he has for now.


End file.
